STAFF STRUCTURE AD HOC TEAM REPORT - OCTOBER 2025

October 29, 2025 Morgan Fletcher

Take some time to read the Ad Hoc Team's report below, and here are some supporting documents to take a look at as well.

Since our Discernment process was completed in 2023, your church leadership has striven to model our commitment to being an Agile Church; one that is nimble, adaptable, and flexible as needs arise. This has been especially true in the ways in which we adapted the staff structure following Pastor Morgan's resignation in June 2024 and several subsequent staff changes. This year, with two open positions, we saw an opportunity to look at our staff structure more holistically to determine what was best for Calvary for the next season in our church’s life, instead of addressing only one piece of the puzzle at a time.

An Ad Hoc team (Anne Comstock, Beth Dickinson, Kevin Jonell, Diane Newcom, and Caitlin Sturgis) was appointed to carry out this work alongside Pastor Anne, and we are pleased to announce that we are ready to communicate the results!

We began our work by researching data on church trends and structures and conducting a number of interviews with individuals who were familiar with Pastor Anne, with Calvary, or with church/non-profit organizational structures. We then gathered information from Pastor Anne herself, and from other Calvary staff. Several points emerged to serve as “guiding lights” for our structure evaluation work.

Key Learnings

Pastor Anne works an unsustainable schedule—often 6 or 7 days per week—and is always on call. The work itself is difficult—physically, emotionally, and spiritually—as is the work of all pastors.
Much of the work Pastor Anne is doing is executive or administrative work that is beyond the scope and focus that we believe she should have. It is not the best use of her gifts and skills, and we believe, as does Pastor Anne, that she should have more time to focus on pastoring to the congregation.
We need a sustainable staff structure that will allow all of our clergy to do what they are called and educated to do—caring, teaching, preaching, advocating, serving, planning and leading worship, being present within and outside of our Calvary community—without being bogged down with daily executive or administrative tasks.
Pastoral care of the congregation is important, time-consuming, and often unpredictable and hard to manage within the context of other job responsibilities.
Focus is needed on strategic communications to create campaigns and messaging that share Calvary’s story with external communities. Each of us benefits from being a part of this beloved community and we need to share that with more people and let them know they can find a spiritual home here!

Budget Considerations

Our budget goal is to create a 2026 staff structure for which the budget is roughly equivalent to the 2025 budget. Opportunities include:

The 2025 budget provided funding for two positions—half of the prior Office Administrator role and Pastor Mary’s role—that we have not filled while evaluating our overall staff needs.
Calvary Accountant Luwan Jones has announced her intent to conclude her contract role with us at the end of first quarter 2026.
Much of our weekly communications work is currently contracted out to Present Nomads (Rev. Morgan Fletcher). Our change in staff structure will bring the external communications work back in-house, while continuing to utilize contract resources for internal communications, thus freeing up additional funding for internal staff roles.

New Staff Structure

The following new part-time positions have been identified:

Part-time Pastor – to be filled by Rev. Ian Cummins (see separate announcement)
Part-time Congregational Chaplain – Rev. Brenda J. R. Goodman, currently filling this role on an interim basis, will continue in the on-going position on a regular basis

Having a part-time pastor and chaplain gives us much more flexibility during busy times when pastors need to be two places at once!

Part-time Executive Director of Church Operations (EDCO) – recruitment to occur late 2025/early 2026
- Facilities and Operations, Accounting, and Finance will report to the EDCO

These three new part-time roles have the benefit of bringing in three more people’s experience, creativity, and skills to help us think strategically, plan new initiatives, and otherwise participate in the work and mission of Calvary, without the expense of full-time compensation and benefit programs.

All of our current wonderful staff members will continue in their present roles, with modifications as impacted by the integration of the new positions. Specifically, the above changes will allow Pastor Alice to focus more heavily on strategic communications to “get the word out” about Calvary, and to take back some of the communications tasks currently being contracted out. And, of course, Pastor Anne’s role will evolve substantially with the new team in place to support her!

Balancing the Head Count!

For those of you who are trying to work out how this might affect the budget in practical terms, take a look at the "Funding Equivalency Chart" below.

While these are not direct dollar-for-dollar correlations, the combined funds of the positions and benefits from 2025 will roughly cover the new positions for 2026.

Next Steps

We look forward to providing an opportunity to speak with the Calvary community about this restructure at 9:00 a.m. on November 9 in the Chapel or via Zoom, and at 6:30 p.m. on November 11 via Zoom. In the meantime, pressing questions may be addressed to Beth Dickinson or Anne Comstock.

Thank you for your patience during this period where we held positions open while considering how best to design our staff structure for future sustainability. Many thanks to the rest of the Ad Hoc Committee as well. What a great team!

Anne Comstock, Deacon Co-Moderator

Beth Dickinson, Deacon Staff Relations - HR

Scan the QR code below to see our initial video announcement of the staff changes!